Ending slavery: Session helps identify signs of human trafficking » Local news » The Enid News and Eagle, Enid, OK

Ending slavery: Session helps identify signs of human trafficking » Local news » The Enid News and Eagle, Enid, OK:

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“The major need was to increase understanding and awareness,” O’Brien said. “When people think of human trafficking, they think of it as being an international problem, but it’s truly a problem for the U.S. and it’s here in Oklahoma.”

A report published by the U.S. State Department Bureau of Justice Statistics indicates the United States is the primary market for the global child sex trade. As many as 1 million of the children trafficked in the world annually are moved and sold in American communities.

O’Brien hoped the training Friday would not only raise awareness of the issue, but begin to change perceptions of women and girls trapped in the sex trade.

“When people think of prostitution, they think of it as ‘bad girls,’ but most of those girls were molested and groomed for the business,” she said. “They are victims, and they were victimized into the lifestyle.”

According to figures provided by OATH, the average age of a female prostitute worldwide is 14. In Oklahoma, it is estimated on average female prostitutes are first recruited and groomed for the industry at age 12 or 13. More than 90 percent are estimated to have been victims of sexual abuse before being forced into prostitution.

The children trapped in the sex trade are not just children smuggled in from other countries. Both foreign nationals and locals are coerced into sex trafficking and other forms of slavery, according to OATH.

“We think, especially here in the Bible Belt, that our kids are untouchable, but they’re not,” O’Brien said. “They’re very much sought-after, and it’s not just low-income kids ... it’s all our kids.”